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A Tool for
Transparency
Accountability and transparency are two elements that are necessary in any business environment for
stakeholder satisfaction, and to maintain the interest of investors. Oyeniyi Immanuel takes a look at one
tool PEBEC is using to achieve these objectives.
By Oyeniyi Immanuel
“In preparation for
this piece, I used the
reportgov.ng mobile
application by sending
in two complaints
I had in the course of
my dealings with the
Trademarks Registry
and I received feedback
on the same
day.”
The Federal Government, through
the Presidential Enabling Business
Environment Council (PE-
BEC) has set up a portal (via a website
and mobile application) through which
stakeholders in the Nigerian business
environment can send in complaints
and give feedback on their interactions
with over 20 Ministries, Departments
and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal
Government. And that number is growing.
The portal, called reportgov.ng, is accessible
via a mobile application of the
same name and a website - www.reportgov.ng.
Reportgov.ng is Nigeria’s
official public service complaint portal
for complaints and feedback for the
service delivery of any government
Ministries, Department and Agency
MDA. It has been operational as a webbased
platform since 2017 and was the
winning entry in a hackathon featuring
60 Nigerian techpreneurs. Taking it
up a notch to drive adoption and use,
the mobile app was launched in March
2019.
While it may still be too early to determine
the effect of the platform on
the business environment, one must
applaud the initiative of PEBEC in
wanting to be held accountable for its
activities and the drive to ensure that
the MDAs, whose activities the PEBEC
was set up to streamline, are policed as
well. Transparency and accountability
are two things that Nigerians, particularly
those in business, desire from
those in governance.
While preparing for this piece, I used
the mobile application by sending in
two complaints I had in the course of
my dealings with the Trademarks Registry
and I received feedback on the
same day. Even though the issues have
not been completely resolved, it is refreshing
to have a responsive agency,
more so when you can reach them via
convenient means. The platform even
allows you to attach documents to
support your complaint or feedback.
To ensure a quick turnaround time on
issues, the President himself mandated
all ministries, departments and agencies
to attend to complaints within
72 hours. The portal also provides a
monthly score-sheet for the MDAs,
tracking those who resolve their tickets
as quickly as possible. As at when this
article was being written, the Corporate
Affairs Commission was in the lead
in the month of March 2019, resolving
100% of issues raised.
One of the interesting features of the
portal is that one cannot make an
anonymous report. It is not a whistle-blowing
platform, but an avenue to
collaborate with the government in ensuring
that change is actually delivered
in a timely manner.
Without prejudice to my good experience
with the platform and my admiration
for PEBEC’s achievements thus far,
one wonders about the sustainability
of the platform beyond the tenure of its
creators, particularly when the number
of users grow exponentially. Granted, it
is still early days, but it is necessary at
the point of setting up a structure or
initiative, that the means of ensuring
sustainability of same is woven into the
structure. Perhaps, the idea of backing
up PEBEC by means of enabling legislation
which will require a more elaborate
procedure to be overturned (as
opposed to an executive order which
can be changed by a subsequent executive
order) or an Act enabling
and requiring the periodic collection
and publication of all executive orders
should be considered.
Here’s to making doing business in Nigeria
easy!
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sp
ark
ng